Holden Pike
04-14-03, 08:51 AM
http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0310910/confidence2_300dpi.jpg
Saw CONfidence yesterday. It's a lightweight con comedy/caper flick starring Ed Burns (Saving Private Ryan, The Brothers McMullen), Rachel Weisz (The Mummy, About A Boy), Andy Garcia (The Untouchables, Oceans 11) and Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man, Tootsie), directed by James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross). Unfortunately, it was an extremely average effort, wasting a good cast.
Ed Burns is Jake Vig, a good-looking charmer swimming through L.A. who heads a group of experienced conmen. They're into long cons, scamming hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time with elaborate plays where hopefully the mark doesn't know which way is up. The rest of Jake's crew includes Paul Giamatti (Private Parts, Man on the Moon, Duets) and Brian Van Holt (Black Hawk Down, Basic). They also have two corrupt L.A. Detectives on their payroll, played by Donal Logue (The Tao of Steve, Jerry Maguire, "Grounded for Life") and Luiz Guzman (Carlito's Way, The Limey, Traffic, Punch-Drunk Love).
As the flick opens, they're in the final stages of ripping a guy off for a briefcase full of cash. All seemingly goes well, but by the next day they realize they have accidentally stolen from the imbezzling accountant of The King, a local crimeboss. Rather than cut and run, Jake decides to confront The King to try and come to a solution. The King, as played by Dustin Hoffman, is an unkempt disgusting little man. Kind of like if Midnight Cowboy's Rico Ratzo had a brother who made it to the West Coast, survived the TB into old age, and somehow developed a crime empire.
Jake agrees not to give back the $100,000.00 they just stole from The King, but to use their conning ability on any target he wishes, and getting his money back and then some that way. The King agrees, and names a powerful if shady banker, played by Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, Me, Myself & Irene), as the target.
Along the way to figuring out a con against the banker while keeping The King off their backs, Jake enlists a beautiful pickpocket (Weisz) as a new team member, and a rumpled Special Agent played by Andy Garcia shows up, having been eluded by Jake too many times, wanting very much to catch him in the act.
What follows is a very standard genre piece. There are twists and turns in the plot, veiled allegiances and triple crosses, but seriously you would have to have never seen one of these to be fooled in the slightest. Knowing The Sting (1973) alone will be plenty of background to have the entire plot blueprinted midway through the second reel. And while that's disappointing, it needn't have been a completely fatal flaw. If the movie had been routine in genre terms but had a fun tone and performances, the by-the-numbers mechanics could have ben overlooked a bit. Unfortunately the tone is inconsistent and unintersting. It's not very funny as a comedy, and while all the actors are fine in their roles, nobody is magnificent. Hoffman and Garcia get to camp it up and they are the most amusing, the gallery of character actors all do their thing, Rachel Weisz is easy on the eyes, and Burns in the lead is a whole lot better here than in 2001's dreadful 15 Minutes - he could be a movie star if he so chooses. But there just isn't anything for them to do, despite the supposedly complicated plot.
http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0310910/BurnsWeisz.jpg
It's really a disappointment from director Foley. The other way to have gone with such material, other than a light would-be comedy, would have been as a gritty character piece, such as the Jim Thompson adaptations The Grifters (1990) or After Dark, My Sweet (1990) - the latter of which was helmed extremely well by Foley. The plotting in that kind of approach would be forgiveable because it's secondary, not primary. In the lightweight CONfidence as is, the tired plotting takes center stage, with no interesting style or characters to back it up.
It's not an unwatchably bad movie, it's just crushingly average and a waste of too much potential by talented people. I reckon if you aren't at ALL familiar with the con genre, you may even find the movie fun and clever. But trust me, it isn't. In this dead space between the high-profile Oscar fare of the winter and the popular blockbusters of the summer, a forgettable movie like CONfidence isn't the worst you can do - especially with lowered expectations, but it's not worth a night out either. Catch it at a guilt-free afternoon matinee if you must, or better yet simply wait for video later this year.
Grade: C
Saw CONfidence yesterday. It's a lightweight con comedy/caper flick starring Ed Burns (Saving Private Ryan, The Brothers McMullen), Rachel Weisz (The Mummy, About A Boy), Andy Garcia (The Untouchables, Oceans 11) and Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man, Tootsie), directed by James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross). Unfortunately, it was an extremely average effort, wasting a good cast.
Ed Burns is Jake Vig, a good-looking charmer swimming through L.A. who heads a group of experienced conmen. They're into long cons, scamming hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time with elaborate plays where hopefully the mark doesn't know which way is up. The rest of Jake's crew includes Paul Giamatti (Private Parts, Man on the Moon, Duets) and Brian Van Holt (Black Hawk Down, Basic). They also have two corrupt L.A. Detectives on their payroll, played by Donal Logue (The Tao of Steve, Jerry Maguire, "Grounded for Life") and Luiz Guzman (Carlito's Way, The Limey, Traffic, Punch-Drunk Love).
As the flick opens, they're in the final stages of ripping a guy off for a briefcase full of cash. All seemingly goes well, but by the next day they realize they have accidentally stolen from the imbezzling accountant of The King, a local crimeboss. Rather than cut and run, Jake decides to confront The King to try and come to a solution. The King, as played by Dustin Hoffman, is an unkempt disgusting little man. Kind of like if Midnight Cowboy's Rico Ratzo had a brother who made it to the West Coast, survived the TB into old age, and somehow developed a crime empire.
Jake agrees not to give back the $100,000.00 they just stole from The King, but to use their conning ability on any target he wishes, and getting his money back and then some that way. The King agrees, and names a powerful if shady banker, played by Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, Me, Myself & Irene), as the target.
Along the way to figuring out a con against the banker while keeping The King off their backs, Jake enlists a beautiful pickpocket (Weisz) as a new team member, and a rumpled Special Agent played by Andy Garcia shows up, having been eluded by Jake too many times, wanting very much to catch him in the act.
What follows is a very standard genre piece. There are twists and turns in the plot, veiled allegiances and triple crosses, but seriously you would have to have never seen one of these to be fooled in the slightest. Knowing The Sting (1973) alone will be plenty of background to have the entire plot blueprinted midway through the second reel. And while that's disappointing, it needn't have been a completely fatal flaw. If the movie had been routine in genre terms but had a fun tone and performances, the by-the-numbers mechanics could have ben overlooked a bit. Unfortunately the tone is inconsistent and unintersting. It's not very funny as a comedy, and while all the actors are fine in their roles, nobody is magnificent. Hoffman and Garcia get to camp it up and they are the most amusing, the gallery of character actors all do their thing, Rachel Weisz is easy on the eyes, and Burns in the lead is a whole lot better here than in 2001's dreadful 15 Minutes - he could be a movie star if he so chooses. But there just isn't anything for them to do, despite the supposedly complicated plot.
http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0310910/BurnsWeisz.jpg
It's really a disappointment from director Foley. The other way to have gone with such material, other than a light would-be comedy, would have been as a gritty character piece, such as the Jim Thompson adaptations The Grifters (1990) or After Dark, My Sweet (1990) - the latter of which was helmed extremely well by Foley. The plotting in that kind of approach would be forgiveable because it's secondary, not primary. In the lightweight CONfidence as is, the tired plotting takes center stage, with no interesting style or characters to back it up.
It's not an unwatchably bad movie, it's just crushingly average and a waste of too much potential by talented people. I reckon if you aren't at ALL familiar with the con genre, you may even find the movie fun and clever. But trust me, it isn't. In this dead space between the high-profile Oscar fare of the winter and the popular blockbusters of the summer, a forgettable movie like CONfidence isn't the worst you can do - especially with lowered expectations, but it's not worth a night out either. Catch it at a guilt-free afternoon matinee if you must, or better yet simply wait for video later this year.
Grade: C